Chapter Eighty-Three: Huangjiang Wharf Town

The heavy rain at night did not stop until the next morning.

Wang Baoshan and Chen Chong, because of last night's heavy rain, had to stay in the dock town by the Yellow River.

It is better to say that it is a stay overnight, but it is better to avoid the wind and rain all night. Because of their clothes, they were in tatters, and their appearance was even more deplorable than ordinary beggars, and their behavior was misbeneficial. The people of Wharf Town, how dare they stay and spend the night in their own homes.

In desperation, they had to find an abandoned deserted house in the town, and the cat spent the night in it.

At this time, the sky was bright, and Wang Baoshan got up early, went to find some rain, and washed up briefly.

"Brother Wang, wake up!" I don't know if Chen Chong was too tired last night, and he didn't wake up until Wang Baoshan finished washing.

"Yes, get up quickly, wait and see if there is a boat crossing the river today." ”

Yesterday afternoon, when the two of them arrived at Wharf Town, it was already late, and they didn't know anything about the situation in the town.

"Okay, let's go to town and see what's going on. After Chen Chong finished speaking, he got up and cleaned up.

After packing up, Wang Baoshan and the others left the deserted house and came to the town.

As far as the eye can see, this dock town is not big, and it is not as big as an ordinary village. Except for the alley in the middle of the town, which is less than a hundred steps away, which looks like a street, the other houses are all mud-walled houses with thatched roofs.

If it weren't for the intersection into the town, with the words "Huangjiang Wharf Town" written on a wooden sign, Wang Baoshan once thought that this was a small village.

At this time, the people of the town had already started a day's work. There were not many pedestrians on the streets of the town, and they were busy with their own business, but no one paid attention to them.

When he got up in the morning, he didn't eat, so Wang Baoshan took Chen Chong and entered the only tavern in the dock town. I'm going to have a bite to eat, so stop by and ask the store about the situation.

Dafan tavern, in addition to hanging the plaque at the door, no matter how big or small, almost will hang a big flag in front of their own door, and leave a single word "wine" on the flag, so that customers can see it from afar.

This tavern in the town of Wharf is no exception, with a wine flag hanging in front of the door, and a wooden sign at the door, which reads "A bowl of drunk".

Wang Baoshan looked at the door number, and felt a little funny, what kind of wine is so vigorous, do you get drunk after drinking a bowl?

Although this restaurant is small, the door of "a bowl of drunk" is indeed not small in terms of momentum. When the two of them entered, they found that the inside of the tavern was in a mess, and there was not even a decent table, chair and bench.

Except for the center of the hall, where two large wooden planks about a foot and a half long were laid horizontally, and the stones and mud were made up of stones and mud to serve as tables, and only five or six small dilapidated benches remained.

"This ......"

Looking at everything inside, it was a little too simple, Wang Baoshan couldn't help but feel that he was in the wrong place.

At this moment, a lazy voice sounded, and a middle-aged man with a raunchy beard walked over from outside the house.

"Shopkeeper, are you there?" Wang Baoshan saw that he was dressed in tattered clothes and wearing tattered straw sandals, although he was not tall, but he was as thin as a bamboo pole, thinking that he was a beggar who asked for food, so he didn't bother him.

"Come here, just sit down first, and I'll go get you wine and eat......"

The middle-aged man said, and went into the back room by himself.

"Could it be that he's not the owner of this shop?"

Wang Baoshan glanced at Chen Chong and wanted to confirm his thoughts, but Chen Chong just shook it, indicating that he didn't know either.

After the middle-aged man entered, after a while, he walked out leisurely with a large black glaze wine jar.

It is better to say that it is a jar, but it is better to say that it is a jar. Because the big wine jar is about to catch up with a medium-sized water tank, which is more than half a person high, and the mouth of the wine jar is almost up to the chin of a middle-aged man.

Such a huge jar of wine, if it is filled with wine, looks like it weighs no less than 100 catties, and the middle-aged man who seems to be thin is holding his hands like that, and he doesn't seem to be struggling at all.

This contrast is so great that Wang Baoshan and the others were stunned and stunned on the spot.

"Poof......"

The big wine jar fell next to the wooden platform, and smashed a big hole in the ground of the house.

Only then did Wang Baoshan notice that the ground in this house was uneven, with many small pits of different sizes, overlapping repeatedly, and potholes everywhere. It seems that they are all shallow pits smashed out by such a big wine jar.

Although the wine jar is large, the mouth of the jar is very small, only the size of a teacup. After the middle-aged man put down the big wine jar, he magically took out a dirty bamboo wine cup from behind him, plus two large wine bowls that were also dirty.

The big red cloth that was unsealed and the bamboo wine cup was just enough to reach in to get the wine, and it seemed that it was a matching wine utensil with the big wine jar.

Strange to say, the wine cup, which looks much smaller than a wine glass, can fill a large bowl of wine after a glass of wine is punched.

The middle-aged man made two glasses of wine in a row, each filled two wine bowls, and placed them on the wooden table. He didn't pay attention to it, Wang Baoshan and the others, who looked stupid at this time, didn't speak, just leaned against the big wine jar. Take a pair of thief's eyes, look at them with bad intentions, and seem to enjoy their performance.

Wang Baoshan was furious by him, and when he saw that this posture was to let him drink, he didn't think much about it, and picked up a wine bowl and prepared to drink.

"Slow, Brother Wang, don't drink other people's wine casually. Seeing this, Chen Chong hurriedly spoke out to stop him.

Wang Baoshan was blocked by him like this, and he also came back to his senses, and he couldn't help but feel a little afraid, blaming himself for being too reckless, almost forgetting the sinister nature of people's hearts, and not being able to trust people casually.

"What, are you worried about the poison in the wine?" the middle-aged man smiled, not looking unhappy at all.

Wang Baoshan was upset when he heard this, and said: "Uncle, you misunderstood, we just wanted to buy a few steamed buns to satisfy our hunger, and we never thought about eating wine." ”

After hearing this, the middle-aged man put away the smile he had just put away, his tone was a little displeased, and said, "If you don't eat wine, why are you here?" I only have a bowl of wine and don't sell anything to eat. ”

"Can we ask you something?"

"What do you ask?" the middle-aged man was stunned for a moment, and his tone softened.

"We want to ask, is there a boat crossing the river in the town?"

"Nope. ”

"What?"

Wang Baoshan was puzzled when he saw that his answer was so simple.

On the way over, he saw that in the yard in front of almost every house, most of the people in the dock town were hanging fishing nets, and at a glance he knew that this dock town surrounded by mountains on three sides was a town market that made a living from fishing, and there must be many boats in the town.

"It rained heavily last night, the river rose a lot, and there was no one in the town, and I was willing to go out on the boat......"

Chen Chong raised his eyebrows when he heard this, stared at the middle-aged man's eyes, trying to see something from them, but he didn't see anything, and said, "I said shopkeeper, this seems a bit far-fetched, right?

The middle-aged man listened to Chen Chong's questioning, smiled hehe, and said, "They don't dare to go out of the boat." ”

"Why don't you dare?" Wang Baoshan asked when he saw that he was smiling unnaturally.

"You have eaten the wine, and I will tell you... Huh..."

The middle-aged man meant that he still wanted to let them drink, Chen Chong listened to it, pulled Wang Baoshan and walked out, not wanting to waste time here.

"Two little brothers, and slow ......"

"Uncle, if you have anything to say, we still have something to do. Chen Chong didn't wait for Wang Baoshan to speak, so he said it first.

The middle-aged man did not rush to answer, but told them a strange thing, and this strange thing happened yesterday afternoon.

As the saying goes, rely on the mountains to eat the mountains, and rely on the river to eat the river. The people living in the riverside wharf towns are no exception, most of them make a living from ferrying, and fishing is a side job.

In addition to the time when some people need to cross the river, they go out to see the passing passengers across the river, and in their spare time, some people drive fishing boats on the river side by side.

Some are on the shore, not far from the place to put the net, put the bait, and then go to the net after a few days, if you are lucky, every net that is pulled up, you can have a lot of harvest.

Just yesterday, a few fishermen took advantage of the good weather and calm seas to meet to go to the river to collect their nets. After a few nets were pulled up, there were different numbers of fish and shrimp, jumping around in the nets.

The fishermen were in a good mood, and they were even more enthusiastic.

This was a very common scene as usual, but it didn't take long for them to close the net when something strange happened.

Suddenly, one of them screamed, and then they looked around, and not far from them saw a fisherman looking at the net in front of him with a look of horror.

"I'm afraid I've caught something unclean..."

Among the other fishermen, an old man was full of suspicion, put down his men, and led the rest of the people to surround him.

I saw the screaming fisherman, his face full of horror, holding a fishing net in his hand, and in the fishing net was a group of fish and shrimp jumping around, rushing left and right, trying to jump out of the shackles of the fishing net.

But between the gaps between the fish and shrimp, there was a white snake, a white white snake without scales, like a strip of white meat, about three feet long, the thickness of a rolling pin, so abruptly across the fishing net.

The white snake, soft as boneless, like a hemp rope, drooped in the fish and shrimp, motionless, as if it was dead.

The old fisherman took a branch and trembled and provoked the white snake, and when he saw that it still did not react, he was also relieved, and picked up the white snake and carefully sent it into the river.

The strange thing is that this seemingly dead white snake came back to life as soon as it touched the river, and even went to the bottom of the water.

When the white snake disappeared, the old fisherman opened his mouth and said that the white snake was the spirit snake in the river, otherwise how could there be no snake scales?

Moreover, he is not a young man, and he has been fishing and netting by the Yellow River for decades, and he has naturally seen more fish creatures than ordinary people. Therefore, the surrounding fishermen believed his words, and when they returned home, they told others about the snake they had caught, and soon the matter spread in the dock town.

Originally, this matter passed, but at night, when the lightning flashed and thundered, the demonic wind and the demonic rain, and when the catharsis, the old fisherman was on his way home, when he passed by the river, he accidentally fell into the river and was carried away by the river.

At that time, the people in the town tried to save him, but they couldn't save him. When people recalled the strange events of the day, they all had palpitations, and they all said that the old fisherman had touched the spirit snake, angered the elf, and was taken away by it.

All of a sudden, the white snake made people panic and couldn't live all day.

After listening to this, Wang Baoshan also understood in his heart that last night, it was raining so much, and no one in the huge dock town was willing to take them in for the night, it turned out to be because of this.

But is this a strange thing? How many strange things in the world are not just a little white snake? It is really so evil that it makes them so nervous.

"Stranger, give you a piece of advice, now the people in the town dare not go out of the boat, for fear of being killed by that spirit snake, so you can't cross the river. ”

Chen Chong obviously didn't believe it, and said: "Since they don't dare to cross the river, then we will figure out our own way." ”

"Hehe... This vast river, unfathomable, now the river is rising, the wind and waves on the river are crazy, and there are no boats, I am also kind enough to remind you, don't know what to do. If you don't listen, you'll feed the fish and shrimp in the river for no reason, and you will become a water ghost in the river..."

The middle-aged man said, brushing his dirty beard, and then said: "Besides, this wine is food, and it is wasted to attract scolding." Since I have poured out this wine for you, it will be a waste if you do not eat it. Therefore eat a bowl of wine and then leave, and it will not delay your business. ”

The middle-aged man was a little impatient when he saw that they didn't drink, leaning on the big wine jar, but his face had an expression that if you don't eat and drink, you don't want to leave.

"I said uncle, we didn't say we wanted to eat, we just went to the wrong place, why do you have to let us eat?" When Chen Chong heard this, a cold light suddenly flashed in his eyes, and his right hand was intentionally or unintentionally placed on the leather bag on his waist, and the things contained in it were the triple handcuffs.

At this point, Wang Baoshan also understood, knowing that it was a middle-aged man who clearly wanted to buy and sell, and what strange things he used to fool them, which must have made Chen Chong angry. It seems that Chen Chong also made a killing move, in order not to cause more trouble, he hurriedly said: "How much silver is a bowl?"

"Huh...... My wine is not expensive, the price is fair, Tong Su is not bullied, as long as five taels of silver a bowl, you can't buy a loss, you can't buy fooled. When the middle-aged man heard this, Wang Baoshan asked the price, and immediately became enthusiastic, and he was like two people just now.

"Brother Wang, don't listen to his nonsense, this is clearly a fraud that the villagers and people are often used to deceive outsiders in the past...... I don't think he's kind either. Where did Chen Chong believe the nonsense of middle-aged people, and he was even more annoyed in his heart.

When Wang Baoshan heard this, a bowl of wine cost five taels of silver, as if he had heard a big joke, and he couldn't help but have a new understanding of this seemingly harmless middle-aged man in his heart.

He also said: "Uncle, I just smelled your wine, there is no smell of wine at all, I think it is clearly water, you bluff us like this, forget it, and the price is outrageous, you are clearly coaxed, and began to rob clearly." ”

This is really sinister, and people can't prevent it!